THE RUSH TO NEW ZEALAND.

Press, Volume I, Issue 21, 12 October 1861, Page 3

THE RUSH TO NEW ZEALAND.

(From ' The Sydney Empire,' Sept. 16. ) The reports of the gold discoveries in New Zealand seem to be producing the usual effects of exaggerated rumours of that description upon the mining population. Unsettled not so much from disposition as from necessity, not so much from the peculiar nature of their employment, as from the impossibility hitherto experienced of making a home for themselves in Australia, the gold diggers have no local ties to bind them to this colony. No opportunity has been presented, no prospect has been held out to them to become fixed denizens of the country bound to it by the possession of a freehold. If they now quit us therefore to proceed to New Zealand, they leave us in all probability for ever. Now it is not unlikely should the accounts from the neighbouring colony continue favourable, so as to admit of being magnified by distance, and coloured by the imagination, that such an exodus from the Australian diggings will take place as may prove seriously and permanently detrimental to the interests of every class in the community. But few persons amongst those who have recently assumed an antagonistic attitude towards the diggers, and perhaps the squatters least of all, are fully aware in how great a degree their daily receipts and annual incomes are dependent upon the presence and labours of the mining population. But few are endowed with sufficient foresight to discern the financial and commercial collapse that must be occasioned by the contingency referred to. Only let ten thousand able-bodied diggers emigrate to New Zealand and the loss of the hundred thousand pounds a month now created by their industry, would be, ere long, felt calamitously in every branch of business. In such an event, insolvency, it is to be feared, would leap through the community like a skittle ball, and the prostration, not resembling that proceeding from other causes, would be continuous if not irremediable.

Let us, whilst hoping for better things, cast about us for a preventive. This there may be at present, although should the worst happen, there would scarcely be any cure. For, as we eaid before, there would be little hope that the stalwart men who might depart from New South Wales would ever come back. The New Zealand land system would offer attractions to detain them, more seductive than gold, and all that was valuable in the bone and sinew, and mental and moral capacities of the thousands who might go thither, would be Bnally lost to Australia. It would have been different had these persons been the owners of freehold properties in the island continent. However small, these would have formed the magic circle of a home, which would "either have prevented their departure or insured their return. Their going, even in that case, might eventually have induced them to enrich the land of their adoption by turning out to be

Ino more than a temporary sojourn in New Zealand for the purpose of coining back to us loaded with its auriferous spoils. Is it too late to make cither or both of these objects attainable ? The question is an important one in the eventuality which threatens us, and deserves serious consideration, both on the part of Government and individuals—How are we to retain that portion of our population, which far more than any other, man for man? contributes to those productions which constitute our annual income, and without whose co-operation, direct or indirect, the whole machinery of trade may suffer fatal derangement ? The most available remedy will be the exercise of patience by the gold-diggers themselves. The land bills in some form or other, but iv such a shape at all events, as will enable eaoh of them to secure bis favourite selection upon easy terms, aro on the eve of passing into law, and will come into operation at the commencement of the ensuiDg year. That is moral certainty, in spite of all possible complications and political manoeuvring. Whatever changes may take place, the passing of the Land Bills, so as to admit of free selection coming into force on the first of January next, or the promulgation of some regulations equivalent to the most popular of their provisions, is now as inevitable as the day spring alter the darkness of night. Action on the part of the Government to that extent, may be looked upon as certain. Tho example of Victoria would leave the roost timid or unwilling . Ministry no alternative but that of at once acting upon the Orders in Council, in the event of the Legislature, or any branch of it, showing itself refractory iv. reference to the land question. Upon this the golddiggers may rely. And with this conviction to rest upon, the temptations presented by the New Zealand gold-fields ought to bo shorn of more than half their strength. If they compare tho fertility of the soil, or the climate of Australia with tho natural features of the neighbouring country, as described by the best authorities, and indicated by authenticated results, tho diggers, or expectant settlers, will see ample reasons to remain where they are. Simply contrasting the illimitable extent and inexhaustible wealth even of our gold-fields, with tho narrow limits and dubious character of those of New Zealand, would furnish any intelligent adventurer, who has an eye to the future as well as to tho present, with a motive to prefer these colonies to Otflgo. There is only one point of view in which the goldfield at the last mentioned place may appear to advantage by the side of our diggings, and this, in the present temper of tho gold miners is apt to be exceedingly illusory; we allude to the absence of the Chinese at Otago, and the almost overwhelming numbers of that alien race flowing into the gold-fields of this colony. Now, whilst admitting the goodness and even the probable permanency of this ground of recommendation possessed by the Otago gold-fields and acknowledging that it is altogether unlikely after what has occurred here, that ihe Chinese will be permitted to gain a footing there, either now or at any future period; still we cannot regard this circumstance as a lasting source of preference to the prejudice of the gold-fields of Australia. Our hope and trust is that Chineso immigration has reached its allowable maximum, and must and will be immediately restrained. There are foundations for this belief, quite irrespective of the present intentions of the Legislature. There are, in ehorf, causes at work of which even the prominent actor* in connection therewith are unconscious instruments, but which will compel the adoption of effective measures to repel the Chineso invasion. On that head there need be no apprehension. The Anglo-Saxon feeling of nationality when once properly aroused, will be found adequate to its own vindication, and the accomplishment of every legitimate purpose. The apprehended, or rather the possible diminution of our digging population, and the attompts that would probably be made to supply their place with Mongolians, would open the eyes of all to the true state of the Chinese question, and to the actual relation in which Chinese labour, employed in raising gold, stands to our pecuniary returns and commercial interest. The matter is not understood as yet. But in that case the difference between ten thousand Europeans, who either expend all they earn in the colony, or invest it in its improvement, and an equal number of Chinamen, who board up and carry away all that is procured by their labours, in the nature of capital, out of the country, would be unmistakably manifest. It would make itself felt in every tradesman's pocket, as well as in the Government coffers, before the expiration of twelve months, and Mill's definition of capital, viz., •' something produced, for the purpose of being employed as the means towards a further pro-. duction," would then be seen to apply to that part of the proceeds of Chinese labour which is abstracted from the colony and transferred to the Celestial Empire. The Chinese evil must, therefore, in any event soon elicit or provoke an appropriate remedy. Let not the European diggers retreat before the Mongolians, for the cry has gono forth and must'soon be triumphant, AUSTEALIA FOR THE AUSTRALIANS !

An Act to amend tite New Pbovinces Act, 1858. Whereas by the first sub-section of the first section of the New Provinces Act, 1858, it is among other things provided, that any petition for the establish* ment ot a new province under the said act shall be

signed by at least one hundred and fifty registered electors entitled to vote in the election of Members of the House of Representatives resident within the district proposed to be comprised in the New Province, exclusive of persons of the native race, and shall contain a sufficient description of the district proposed to be comprised in the New Province; and whereas it is expedient to amend the recited provision of the said act, and also to make provision for the due publication before the presentation thereof of petitions under the said act: Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly of New Zealand, in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : 1. The short title of this act shall be the " New Provinces Act Amendment Act, 1861. 2. The said first sub-section of the first section of the New Provinces Act, 1858, is repealed, and in lieu thereof every petition for the establishment of a new province under the New Provinces Act, 1858, shall be signed in duplicate by at least two hundred and one persons registered as electors entitled to rote in the election of a Member or Members of the House of Representatives for some electoral district of the colony, and resident within the district proposed to be comprised in the new province; and such petition shall contain a sufficient description of the district proposed to be comprised in the new province.

3. A copy of every such petition with its signatures, after signature thereof by a sufficient number of persons shall, before presentation thereof to the Governor, be forwarded to the Superintendent of the province affected thereby, and also be published at least once a week for eight successive weeks in some newspaper pubh'shed in the chief town of the province within which the district proposed to be comprised in the new province is situate. 4. In such petition as aforesaid, no statement or allegation shall be allowed excepting what may be necessary either to convey in due form to the Governor the wish or prayer of the petitioners for the establishment of their district as a province under the New Provinces Act, 1858, as amended by this act, or to place before His Excellency correct information as to the actual population, the number of electors, the exports and imports, the customs revenue, general resources or proper boundaries of such district.